Improved finger-bar arrangement for harvesters



UNITED STATES PATENT EEICE.

JOSEPH MOORE AND ASAHEL H. PATCH, OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.

MPROVED FINGER-BAR ARRANGEMENT FOR HARVESTERS.

Speciication forming part of Letters Patent No. 16,134, dated November 25, 1856.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, J. A. MOORE and A. H. PATCH, of Louisville, in the county ofJefferson and State of Kentucky', have invented a certain new and useful Improvement on Finger Bar Arrangements of Harvesting Machines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specilication, and in which- Figure l represents a top view of a portion of the finger-bar with lingers therein attached; Fig. 2, a vertical transverse section ofthe same, taken as indicated by the line :v .t in Fig. 1 and Fig. 3, a view ot' a portion of the metal plate ot' which the bar is formed previously to being bent or folded.

Finger-bars of harvesters have been so variously constructed, and many ot' them and the several defects which it has been their peculiarity to reduce or avoid are so well known to those engaged in the building and using of harvesters, that it appears unnecessary forus to allude here brieliy to more than a few of them, by way of showing the extent and importance of our improvement, which has reierence to the sheet-metal kind, combining lightness with strength.

One mode of securing the fingers has been arming the front edge of the platform of the machine with aiiat metal plate,in which square holes were punched for shanks of the iingers to pass through; but this is so palpably defective asa means of fastening that no commentupon it isnecessary. Variousijngepbarshavealsobeen rounded at their front edge, so as to admit of cutting close to the ground without damage, and this advantage our improvement possesses.`

In sheet-metal finger-bars many difficulties have been presented, a few only of which can be noticed here. In one form a top finger cutting plate has been used, with the back portion ofthe plate bent round underneath in U forni and brought out again in front to clasp as a springtheintermediateinovingcutter; butthis constitutes no stable hohl to stout lingers to be separately inserted, and is weak and liable to spring and open, and is rather a peculiar form ot' double cutter than finger-bar. Another form of finger-bar has been a plate of somewhat less width than the latter, similarly bent at the back edge, or edge neXt to the platform, and open in front, presenting a continuous cavity, in which the shanks of the ngers were inserted, riveted, and the spaces between the fingers filled by pouring in metal, thus doing away with that lightness which should form a prominent feature of the sheet metal bar. In bars ot' this latter kind, made and used open in front, strain upon the ngers has a tendency to open the bar and to loosen the lingers, and for the most part they are not adapted to cut close to the ground. Our improvement obviates these defects and many others, possesses numerous advantages, and for a given amount of metal has greater strength, as will appear from the following description.

The inger-bar A represented in the accom panying drawings is made of sheet metal, with holes a first punched in it, after which the sheet or strip is readily and accurately folded into U form, as seen in Fig. 2, the holes a ot' the folded sheet or linger-bar proper being through the cente.` of the fold, or thereabout, and serving for the shanks b of the fingers B to t through. The shanks of the lingers thus entered in i'ront through the fold are worked or driven backward toward the back open edge of the bar, and are grasped between the top and bottom sides or leaves of the hollow bar and fastened therein by bolts or rivets o, uniting the whole I may be made slightly broader than the other end, and the hollow portion ofthe bar forming said shank illcd with wood or iron; but the rest of the hollow bar-that is, the spaces between the shanks of the lingersshould be left without lilling, so as to allow the platform 7 (when the machine is a reaper) a convenient attachment by tongues or projections of the platform entering the bar between the ijngershanks. This tinger-bar arrangement offers but little or no obstruction to the stubble or to the cut grass or grain, and may be used for cutting close to the ground, its rounded front -closed edge giving it a great advantage over other sheet-metal bars.

The rounded closed edge of the bar being in front, the baris less liable to spring or work open by strain on the lingers, which, whether up or down, has riot the same priZing effect upon the two leavesof the bar to throw them apart that entering the fingers through a front open edge of the bar, as in other arrangements, has; and,

further, it should be specially observed, the j awbend of the finger-bar in our arrangement, having its fulcrum or hinge portion in front, admits of the fingers being so tightly pinched by the back and inner edges, top and bottom, of the holes a,`on folding or making tight and perfect the fold of the bar on the fingers, as described, that the steadiest hold is given to the ngers, and thus the Whole finger-bar arrangement is of a stronger aud more rigid character, though the bar be made lighter than usual, and the bar is effectually restrained from opening, and the fingers less liable to loosen, even7 than in those arrangements which do not come Within the class of sheet-metal bars, but in which the fingers are riveted or screwed to the top or bottom of a solid bar; and our arrangement, in addition to all these advantages, is both cheap to manufacture and durable.

What We claim as our improvement on folded sheet-metal linger-bars, and desire to secure by of the bar in the rear, and secured therein, es-

sentially as specified. v

In testimony whereof We have hereunto subscribed our naines.

JOSEPH A. MOORE. ASAHEL H. PATCH.

Witnesses:

JOHN ENRIGHT, WILLIAM HARRAH. 

